Those Who Survive
by JustUsingARandomName
Summary: "I love you Emily, and I won't let anything happen to you." Something he wishes was the truth "I love you too Sam, and as long as you survive, I'll survive with you." A statement that is so hard to keep true. "It's a promise."


**DISCLAIMER**

**None of these characters belong to me except for any OCs I create**

**Sam's POV**

"Come on! We have to run!"

We were surrounded by the undead. We had just left our little shelter to scavenge for food, but we quickly attracted the attention of them.

"What are you doing Emily, move!" I shouted to my sister, the only family I have left. She was frozen in place, multiple of the undead making their way towards her. I hadn't realized she wasn't moving until I had gotten quite a bit farther ahead.

We had spent at least a year alone together after we lost our father. He, well he couldn't take it anymore. Our mother and brother both died early on, bitten by the freshly turned. I had to put them down. Now, with only my sister left, I don't know what I'd do if I lost her too.

"A-ah, right, sorry." She spoke, just loud enough for me to hear. She started running towards me, but hadn't noticed the undead coming up from her side. It grabbed her and she screamed.

I raised my gun and shot the undead in the head. We learned quickly how to dispatch of the freaks in the beginning.

"Hurry up Emily! We're almost home free!" I said while shooting at any undead coming close to me or Emily.

As she finally caught up to me, we both started running away from the group that had caught us by surprise. We had been searching in a Walmart, so it makes sense that we hadn't found every threat, but to have missed so many? I can't believe I let my guard down long enough to be unable to realize just how many undead had been left on the store.

As we got far enough away to be able to catch our breath, I took the chance to check over my sister.

Her normally dirty blonde hair was now caked with dry blood and guts, as is her face. Her white blouse now a dark red. I guess wearing white in the apocalypse wasn't the best idea. Her jeans were ragged and torn and her shoes had multiple holes.

"Seems we need to find a show store soon, huh sis?" I ask, slightly chuckling while out of breath.

"Ha, I, ha, guess we do…" she spoke with a guilty voice.

"Hey, what's wrong Em?" I can't help but wonder what has her feeling so down, well besides the whole almost dying thing.

"W-well it's just that this has got to be the 5th time I've frozen up while in danger, and it could have cost you your life each time…" It was easy to tell thst she was upset.

I bent down on my knees to go down to her level. I was a whole foot taller than her last time I checked. "Hey, listen, if anything happened to me, it wouldn't be your fault. It is my job to protect you, has been for a long time. If I get hurt, it's on me, not you. You don't have to try and protect me, I can do that just fin-." I was interrupted by her before I could finish.

"That's just it though, I wouldn't need to protect you if you weren't busy taking care of me to the point that you can't protect yourself. What if you were too focused on me and ended up getting bit! If you were to die, I-I don't know what I'd do. I can't survive without you, and you know that! You can't just sacrifice yourself for me Sam, you know I would die without you here!" She spoke in such a way that I couldn't tell whether she was more angry with me, or scared that she'd lose me.

I knew, of course, that she was right. There was no way she could continue to survive in this world without me. She can kill the undead just fine, but only one on one. If Emily was to be swarmed by even just 3 of them, she wouldn't have a chance in Hell of killing them. Maybe, she could outrun them, but what if there were more? She couldn't survive just by running, we both knew that…

"Yeah, I guess you're right, but what am I supposed to do? I can't leave you alone in the house, we never know when someone could come knocking. I mean, you're what, 13? 14? You aren't strong enough to fend off against a stranger with just a knife, and we only have one gun, which you know I couldn't leave with you if I left you there. There is no other option then to take you with me, but even then there is danger lurking around every corner in the form of the undead." I went off on a rant, not because I was angry, no, nothing like that. I just couldn't bear the thought of losing her because I wasn't there to protect her.

"If we had more people around you wouldn't need to be constantly worrying about me, right? We should find a group to join. Strength in numbers, right?" I knew that finding a group to join was a good plan, but it had so many risks involved.

We started walking back towards the house we were staying in. We had been in that one spot for a bit too long, so we had to get a move on.

"Where would we even find people to join in this mess? It's not like a group of wandering monks are gonna come to us for aid." I knew there was a low chance of actually finding more people, but decided to humor her.

"Well, what about those signs we keep seeing? The ones on the train tracks? They probably have a lot of food and people who could protect us, right? I think the place was called Terminus, yeah?" She had asked me about this before, countless times in fact. It was suspicious. Why would any sane person, let alone an entire community of people, agree to put up signs advertising their location? It just doesn't make a lick of sense.

"You know how I feel about that Em. There is no way they are who they say. People nowadays aren't who they say they are. I mean, hell, they weren't even before the dead started rising, but now even more so." I would always respond similarly. Emily of course wanted to believe that this was real, and kept on bringing it up.

"Not everyone is bad, you know that. I mean, we're good people." I was gonna respond with another comment about how they had to have been a fake, but seeing the look in her eyes, I knew that she would not let up with this until we were both dead.

"Alright, I will think about it, alright? You are right, not all people are bad, but the majority are, and I just want you to be safe. We are quite close to the place, so we could scout it out for a few days, see if it really is all that they promise. If it seems safe, we can maybe, _maybe_, try to join them." After saying that, I could see her eyes light up with happiness. We haven't encountered any other people since our dad.

"I bet the only reason you are so happy is because you want to see other people, am I right?" I couldn't blame her. I was dying to see new people as well, but I couldn't let her know that.

"N-no, I just can't wait for the food…. Yeah, that's right, the food!" She made a pretty weak excuse, but with how happy she was, I didn't want to upset her more than I already have.

"Hey Sam, you know how I've been keeping count of the days? Well, your birthday is coming up soon, maybe in a week or two if my counting isn't too off. You would be turning 27, right?" It suddenly hit me hard, the realization that it had already almost been two years since this thing had begun, and that now there was probably not a single chance we would ever go back to a normal life.

"Is it already May? Damn, time sure does fly when you are fighting for your life, doesn't it? Yeah, I should be turning 27 now. So, what were you planning on getting your dear older brother for a gift? It isn't like you had much of a chance to grab anything for me." She took her bag off her shoulders and started rummaging through them. She stopped and pulled something out, quickly hiding it from me and putting her bag back on.

"Well, I originally was gonna give this to you on your birthday, but since, well, I obviously don't know for sure if my counting was right, I think I should give it to you now." She took a shiny gold pendent out from behind her back.

"Emily, when did you have the time to find this? Its beautiful, really." I took the pendant by it's chain and opened it, seeing the words, 'I love you' written inside.

"Remember when we were in that clothes store? There was a jewelry section and when we passed by, I snatched it quickly without you noticing. Lucky for me that it had already had that written inside. I hadn't thought it through and forgot that I would need a pen or something to write out the message." She spoke with a small smile on her face. She clearly was happy that I liked it.

"Wow, I just, wow. Thank you for this Em. It's amazing." I said with a big grin on my face, and bent down again to give her a huge hug. Then, while still bent down, I had her put the pendant around my neck.

"Alright, let's hurry back to the house so we can eat and get some rest. We have a long few days ahead of us." I knew that my resolve to keep her safe had just increased even more than I thought it possibly could have. It's just too bad that it couldn't last forever.

**Hey there, this is my first attempt at writing something other than an essay for school so I hope that you liked it. I'm not sure if I am actually gonna continue writing this, because as I said, this is my first story and I'm not sure if anyone will actually like this. I do have a few ideas for this story, but I'm not gonna continue writing something that no one actually likes. Like, who knows, maybe there was too much talking between my 2 OCs for the prologue to a story, but I would like to think that I did ok for my first time. Anywho, if there are people who like this, I suppose I might continue it. **

**Until next time!**


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